Tesla CEO Elon Musk at the Texas Legislature during the regular session to push for a bill that would allow the electric-vehicle maker to sell cars in the Lone Star state through its retail stores.

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk is going to have to pump a whole lot more money into lobbyists and campaign contributions if he ever wants to start selling Tesla vehicles directly from the company’s Texas-based retail stores.

That’s the conclusion from a new Texans for Public Justice report sizing up the influence machine that Musk, CEO of the electric-vehicle maker, employed against the deep-pocketed and well-entrenched state auto dealer network during the regular session.

In the process, however, Musk spent up to $345,000 on hired guns to push his Tesla agenda. He dropped a total of $7,500 in campaign contributions before the session started (Musk is a big donor in federal elections and an Obama bundler but this marked his first-ever round of state contributions in Texas).

That’s all well and good but it’s basically peanuts compared to the money that auto dealers pump into state politics. According to TPJ, auto dealer interests dropped more than $2.5 million in campaign contributions during the 2012 elections. Auto dealers also spent up to $780,000 on lobbyists during the session, more than doubling the dollar figure Musk spent for hired lobby muscle.

“If Tesla and Elon Musk are serious about breaking Texas’ powerful car dealer cartel they will need to drop a lot more political cash, perhaps over several sessions,” the report reads. “Indeed, Musk may have better luck finding a friendly business climate in outer space.”

On that note, Musk, who is also CEO of SpaceX, did have much more success during the regular session when it came to outer space endeavors. As the TPJ analysis notes, he was able to win approval of a pair of measures that SpaceX said were necessary to continue considering South Texas as a potential site for the company’s first commercial spaceport: one to close a state beach for rocket launches and the other to provide legal cover for noise complaints.

That included spending up to $220,000 on lobbyists during the regular session to help get the SpaceX bills passed.

Texas’ plans to cement the deal with SpaceX are progressing, too. Federal regulators still have to give final approval to an environmental impact study for the site near Brownsville that SpaceX is considering.